College student texting and driving when car went over cliff

TEXAS — A 21-year-old college student in Texas says he’s lucky to be alive after a terrible crash. He was texting behind the wheel, and went over a cliff!

Chance Bothe was headed home when he sent a text that said: “I need to quit texting, because I could die in a car accident.”

Seconds later, Bothe plunged off a bridge into a ravine.

Bothe’s father found his son with a broken neck, a crushed face, a fractured skull and traumatic brain injuries.

“I said ‘call the funeral home. He’ll never make it.’ We lost him three times. They brought him back. He coded three times,” Bothe’s father said.

Now, six months later, about 80% of Chance Bothe is back.

“I’m very lucky that I’m not gone forever. I still have things to do in this world,” Bothe said.

Bothe recently completed his final day of rehab at Tirr Memorial Hermann, where he learned to talk and walk again. His message is as obvious as the scars on his reconstructed face.

“They just need to understand don’t do it. Don’t do it. It’s not worth losing your life. I went to my grandmother’s funeral not long ago, and I kept thinking, it kept jumping into my head, I’m surprised that’s not me up in that casket. I came very close to that to being gone forever,” Chance Bothe said.

“If I had a kid 16 years old starting to drive, they could have a phone but the texting feature wouldn’t be on it. That’s how strongly I believe it. It about took him,” Bothe’s father said.

Bothe may still face additional surgeries and rehabilitation. He promises to spread the message about the dangers of texting and driving for the rest of his life.